


Hear Him Say "I Love You" and "Goodbye"

by VulpusTumultum



Series: The Tevinter's Templar [14]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Aging, Angst, Dementia, I Blame Tumblr, Inspired By Tumblr, M/M, Original Character Death(s), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Game, Widowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 13:57:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4609323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VulpusTumultum/pseuds/VulpusTumultum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>Roughly 32 years after the Inquisition ended, Dorian finds letters Lyos Lavellan wrote but never gave him before his death.</b>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>otpprompts:<br/>Imagine your OTP writing each other heartfelt love notes. Bonus: Person B finds a stash of unopened letters for them after person A passes away.</p><p>It started with that “OTP THING” ^^^^<br/>And then it fully happened because razrogue answered my tag of “OH GOD SHOULD I?” with a message saying “DO IT”</p><p>This is NOT the official ending to "the Tevinter's Templar" consider it something of an AU/splinter-off thingy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hear Him Say "I Love You" and "Goodbye"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EggplantRed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EggplantRed/gifts).



Dorian hadn’t been in that corner of the library for months now. Not since the pyre, and the of course, inevitable crowds and seemingly endless wakes or memorials or tributes and letter after letter of condolences. Dorian had only read ones from personal friends, though most of them had made it to the funeral- most had even been in Wycome before the funeral.

Somehow in the last decade and more, that once upon a time Lyos had been so…  _foolish_  as to take lyrium, to fight enemy mages and demons more efficiently had almost been forgotten. He had quit taking it once he’d managed to close more- most- rifts around Thedas. After that Qunari invasion- when things had finally settled into peace.

It had been a bad withdrawal, but he’d  _recovered_ , and lived so many more years, thankfully, clear minded, strong, certain always about what he had wanted to do-

And then he’d started to have difficulty finding the right words in conversations, remembering little things, then larger ones- and then within a single year more, he couldn’t remember the names or even recognize their daughter and sons more than three days a week at the best. There was still talk that somehow,  _somehow_  someone had poisoned him, or he’d come into contact with lyrium again, but the healers were rather more certain that no, it simply had been his past debts to his body and mind catching up to him.

And when his physical health crumbled faster and faster, some would call it a blessing how quickly the end came. Quietly, in his sleep. After a day where he’d managed to recognize  _everyone_  but had spoken as if they were in the courtyard of Skyhold, somehow, telling their Lyrnehn she’d need to improve her high block in case of Red Templar Behemoths while she’d held his hand and Dorian had sat and run his fingers through Lyos’ white hair for what had turned out to be the last time.

Instead of the condolence letters, Dorian had been revisiting the past himself, slowly. He’d saved every letter Lyos had sent him. The short ones that read like military reports, the embarrassingly  _romantic_ ones, and the ones that had passages that should have made the paper smoke.

He could hear his Amatus every time he read them. But there was one- an answer to some letter he’d clearly sent, or so it seemed, and Dorian couldn’t quite remember himself what a few paragraphs were referencing. It had  _nettled_  him, and all things considered, perhaps frightened him, though he still was, he knew, in quite good shape. Maybe better than he sometimes wished…

And the thought had come,  _had Lyos also saved letters?_

A foolish question, of course, he knew his lover, his love, his husband far too well for it to be an uncertainty, so now he was unlocking the desk, having spent a day slowly looking everywhere else among Lyos’ possessions, often delayed by a need to just  _stop._ But he couldn’t stop for long, and eventually the desk in the library had been something too magnetic to resist. He’d found some letters, but not the one he was looking for.

Everything on the desk was still arranged-  _badly-_  as Lyos preferred. A stack of books only loosely in balance, all of them full of bookmarks- a book stuffed inside another book as a place marker.

_Kaffas, Lyos, you know how bad that is for the spine-_

And finally in a drawer, folded letters, tied together, and under them, loose sheets of paper, that weren’t folded, not creased, but that had familiar handwriting, and were clearly more letters.

Every single one, the recipient simply written as  _Vhenan'ara_ or  _Ma'arlath._

Unsent letters, not dated, but those on top written more shakily, almost illegible, compared to those closer to the bottom. Lyos’ words had failed him first, when speaking, but even with shaking hand, writing them, he’d  _remembered_. Until apparently, he’d been too tired to come to his desk. Leaving them to be found when he was  _gone_.

“ _Family tradition, perhaps, Ma'arlath. My father’s son and all that.”_ He could hear the quiet, wry chuckle, and see that deadpan expression with just a hint of humor or sheepishness in grey eyes…

For a moment, Dorian pulled back from the desk sharply, feeling almost as if the letters were an unexpected snake that had bitten him, though instead of dropping them, his fingers tightened to hold them more firmly, making the paper shake and crease.

He breathed out, slowly, and did finally retreat, taking them to  _his_  corner of the silent library to read them.

 

* * *

 

 **NOTES:** If you want an antidote after this, (or actually IDK it might make it worse) this is a possible alternate sad ending to “[ _ **Laughter Lines**_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3887128) **”** WHICH IS A HAPPY AGING LOVERS/FAMILY FIC. That doesn’t end like this!

And if you need more SAD TO GO WITH THIS, well I will link you to [“](https://youtu.be/JEch2Zdq7b0)[ _Veil of Elysium”_](https://youtu.be/JEch2Zdq7b0)[ by Kamelot,](https://youtu.be/JEch2Zdq7b0) which my playlist decided to play  **twice**  while I wrote this, because sometimes having ‘all on repeat’ as well as shuffle brings out the evil in Winamp.

  
The ‘Family Tradition’ thing is a reference to how Lyos’ father wrote a book full of his final goodbyes to clan Lavellan, his wife, and children (although maybe not so final for Lyos) and it’s basically what [ch5 of “Private Readings” is about Lyos reading](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3599607/chapters/8501083).


End file.
